Days of Ice and Fire
by TheWayfaringStranger
Summary: Set after AoS/RotC and before Doomsday. The Doctor and Rose visit a monastery, where the Doctor is forced to observe--gasp!--Silence, and confront another alien who can see forward in time. Doomsday hints. Love/Angst/Comfort/Humor. Updated and complete.
1. Ice Planet

Author's Note: This is my first Doctor Who fanfic. Any mistakes with Whoniverse history are my own. To American readers: Apologies for the British spellings! This story was started in order to better prepare myself (and the characters) for what lies ahead, and to give them another adventure in which they have fun. Likewise, I hope readers will enjoy this. Thank you for reading._  
_

* * *

_Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away..._

"Doctor?"

"Yes, Rose?" He didn't look up from the TARDIS console. Something about a diagnostic scan on the TARDIS.

"I've been thinking—"

"Uh huh," he said distractedly.

"You asked me to think about where I wanted to go next. Well, I'm now wondering..."

"Hmm?" The doctor's eyes, currently framed behind tortoise-shell glasses, remained fixed on the console screen.

"I'm wondering... if there is any time and place you know about, where they are light sabre battles between Jedi knights and Imperial stormtroopers and wrinkly little green guys who can move things with their mind?"

"What?" Rose now had the time lord's attention. He looked up and fixed her with an incredulous stare. She tried to keep a straight face, but then burst out laughing at the look on his.

"Light sabre battles? Stormtroopers? Wrinkly little green guys...? Oh." The Doctor straightened and scratched the back of his head, then flashed a small look of irritation at his companion. "Star Wars." He shook his head and fiddled with another doodad on the console.

"Seriously though, Doctor, is there? And how about those aliens with the really bad poetry... er, Vogons?"

He rolled his eyes this time. "All of time and space, Rose, and you want bad poetry? I could bring you back to Earth for that. Maybe a English classroom, for that matter, of hormonal fourteen year old girls..."

"Light sabre battles, then?"

"A ridiculously crude weapon, not very practical at all in real life. Must say though, that _woohhwwrr wooohhwwrr_ sound is sort of neat..."

"That leaves wrinkly little green guys who can move things with their mind, then, Doctor."

She was only half kidding, but then the Doctor was staring off into space, looking thoughtful. Excitement bubbled up in Rose's chest. "You're kidding!" She grinned madly. "Can we go see Yoda?"

"Not Yoda..." A string of strange names started rolling off the Doctor's tongue as he went through his mental Rolodex of mystic woo-woo alien types that would fit Rose's bill. And harmless ones, preferably... or mostly harmless, and luckily, most of them were. "Aha, got it!" He entered the coordinates into the TARDIS console. "Hang on!"

Rose rewarded him with a brilliant smile that mirrored his as she grabbed a rail. He hit the controls... and the TARDIS shuddered gently.

"Was that it?" Rose asked.

The Doctor was insulted on behalf of his ship, but consulted the monitor, just to be safe. "We're here," he announced, trying to keep the surprise at the gentle ride out of his voice.

"You sure?"

Irritation rose in him again, but looking at Rose's grin banished it. She was teasing, and well, he couldn't blame her, honestly...

"Yep," he said. "You going outside in that, then?" He gave her a once-over. As usual, she didn't look bad, but what she was wearing wasn't going to suit...

"What do I need?" she asked. "A wading suit? Swamp planet, and all that?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes again. "We've gone over the ridiculous science of George Lucas' films, Rose. You can't have a planet where the climate is uniform all over it. But yes, before we go out, dress warm."

"How warm? Why?"

"Er." The Doctor didn't meet her eyes. "Ice planet."

* * *

As soon as they got somewhere warm, Rose was going to kill him, she decided. It didn't matter if his next regeneration got his old ears back, or a beak, four legs, and six arms. She was going to strangle him, because right now it felt like the freezing air was ripping through her lungs with every breath, white stars were exploding behind her eyes, her teeth were chattering, her legs were aching while the rest of her body was numb. She could barely feel her gloved hand in his. She had never felt so cold in her life, and she was going to kill the person responsible for bringing her here. 

Her eyes were nearly closed. Her thigh muscles were burning from the effort of walking (or trying not to fall) on slippery ice as they made their way from the TARDIS to the temple through the ice plain, and to make it worse... to make it all worse...

The Doctor could not shut up. He prattled on about the planet's orbit, mass, atmosphere, and climate, its distance from the system's double-star, its molten core that kept the interior much warmer than the surface, and wondered aloud why mystics loved inhospitable environments, ironic considering they were supposed to offer enlightenment and refuge but chose the hellish places to establish themselves. Rose only managed to nod miserably at the last, trying to take comfort in the fact that maybe the constant babble issuing from the Doctor's mouth was helping warm the climate just a little.

"Oh, the air here is just invigorating," the doctor was saying. "I've never been here, you know. Heard all about it though. They said you could come here and really find the answer to life, the universe and everything. Hey, I wonder if this guy's name Slartibartfast."

Rose raised her head and opened her eyes a little wider. When they'd first stepped outside the TARDIS, their destination was just a translucent structure in the distance, almost lost against the twilight sky and icy landscape. Now, a temple structure loomed above them, ornately carved of clear ice, glittering in the light of two suns low on the horizon, and in the starlight of a galaxy straight above. Rose recalled the Doctor mentioning that this type of sky was only possible in thinner atmospheres. It was beautiful, she had to admit. The temple also. And in front of them was an...alien not larger than she was. It was impossible to tell its gender—humanoid, hairless, very androgynous, and possessed of ears with very long lobes, and eyes with enormous blue irises. Smooth skin the colour of turquoise. The colour contrasted brightly with the daffodil-yellow robes that swathed it.

The alien, silent, bowed low before them, palms meeting in front of its chest. It was a gesture not unfamiliar from Rose's earth. Forgetting the cold for a few seconds, she returned the gesture as gracefully as she could while wrapped in a puffy full-length winter coat, and was aware of the Doctor doing the same beside her.

"Hi, I'm the Doctor, and this is Rose Tyler," chirped the Doctor just as soon as he had straightened.

Whatever Rose was expecting, it wasn't the smile that split the alien's face from ear to ear. When it spoke, its voice as androgynous as its physical features, and tinkled with laughter.

"My name is Kinny. Welcome, Rose and the Doctor, to the House of Love and Emptiness."

* * *

Rose gulped down hot tea gratefully. The liquid was almost a shock to her system with its beautiful heat, that spread from her throat and her stomach to parts of her body she'd forgotten and thought she would never feel again. Her teeth had stopped chattering. She decided that she loved Kinny, whatever he or she was. Right after introductions, the blessed blue-green alien had brought a box from out of its robes, that opened to reveal two steaming hot mugs of spicy tea for them. The Doctor had let her have half of his cup, after she finished her own. Now she let him carry the conversation with Kinny as the three of them rode the simple glass elevator that was bringing them several hundred feet underground. The House of Love and Emptiness was built into the planet's crust, both to shelter its residents from cold and for closer access to geothermal energy beneath the planet's surface. 

"You two have come at the right time, Doctor," Kinny was saying. "Any later and you'd have been caught in the ice storm. They usually last two or three days. At least, during this warm time of the year."

"W-w-warm... time of the year?" Rose heard her voice say in disbelief. The Doctor looked at her in amusement while Kinny seemed to look sympathetic.

"Oh yes... this is the perfect time to be seeking the Teacher. You'll be able to meet him first thing tomorrow."

"In a warm room, I hope?" Rose asked. But she was feeling more optimistic as she was starting to feel slightly less cold as the elevator descended.

Kinny smiled. "Warmer," he/she/it said happily. "We will try our best to make you comfortable, Rose Tyler."

The elevator shivered and stopped moving with a small ding. The doors opened to reveal a quiet and gently lit hallway with translucent white/gray walls of stone not unlike the ice they'd left two minutes ago on the planet's surface. The hallway was punctuated with simple doors of rose-coloured wood and arches into other hallways. At the other end of their hallway stood double doors carved with curling vines and ripples of water. There were no beings around to be seen besides themselves.

Rose and the Doctor followed Kinny out of the elevator, then stopped again as he/she/it turned around and addressed them.

"Doctor, Rose, I need to speak quickly now because the Night Bell will sound soon. Between the Night Bell and First Bell tomorrow the rules of the House demand that silence must be observed by all residents and guests—"

Rose widened her eyes in surprise, then bit down a smile as she fought the urge to look at the Doctor, but Kinny was still speaking—

"So let me be clear," Kinny was saying, "You may meet our Teacher punctually tomorrow at the First Bell in our Hall." Kinny gestured toward the grand double doors. "I will show you to your rooms now. I have prepared food for you therein, but be advised that we do not usually do so, as we do not partake in food after the Midday Bell in our House."

"Did you know we were coming?" The Doctor asked.

"Our Teacher did. Come, this way..."

"How far in advance? And does the Teacher always know when guests are coming?" The Doctor asked.

_Ding._ There was a light peal of a small bell that echoed softly through the hallway. Kinny's mouth, caught mid-breath, shut suddenly.

Rose forgot the cold for a minute as she felt a grin stretch across her face. The freezing air tingled against her teeth, but she didn't care. The Doctor took a breath as if to say something, but Kinny's friendly countenance dropped as the alien stepped forward in a warning stance. The Doctor looked at Kinny in disbelief and mouthed something like "what?" Kinny only shook his/her head sharply, all smiles gone now. The turquoise-coloured alien meant it.

The Doctor pressed his lips together and looked grumpy for the first time since they'd landed. Rose fought down laughter.

There were some perks to this place she could get used to, she thought.

Kinny brought them to two rooms next to each other. They were identical, with a simple pallet and a pile of blankets in each one. In the centre of each room, there was a low, wide and round structure of smooth black stone that like a table with a sunken fireplace in the centre. Among the items on table were a tea kettle, a basket of what looked like bread and fruit, and a pitcher of water. There was a dresser in a corner, and a small door that Rose hoped led to a bathroom.

Kinny, when silent, seemed more serious and less friendly now. The alien bowed low to Rose and the Doctor after showing them their rooms, then retreated. They watched him/her walk down the hallway then turn and disappear through an arch.

The Doctor opened his mouth.

Rose touched his arm and shook her head.

He frowned at her. It was a pout, really. And very amusing to see—a time lord acting like a petulant child being scolded for talking too loud in class.

Rose walked into her room. The Doctor followed behind her. When she turned around, he already had his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, and was waving it at the walls and doors and touching the stone with his other hand. Scanning again.

She wondered if the walls were ice. She wondered what would happen if the Doctor tried to lick them... it certainly still felt cold enough in here to freeze water in here. She placed herself between the pallet and the table/stove and sank into a floor cushion with a quiet sigh. She placed her now-empty and cooling tea mug on the table, and pulled the pile of blankets toward herself.

She felt the Doctor ease himself down beside her. She watched in wonder as he leaned forward over the low, black table, looking at her in a way to make sure she was watching. Then he lowered his head and exhaled through his mouth a cloud of warm air. The moisture condensed and created a small area of condensation on the smooth stone. Rose could not help thinking it was one of most sensual things she'd ever seen the time lord do.

Besides being clever, of course.

ARE YOU OK HERE? he wrote into the moisture with his finger, then looked at her.

She nodded wordlessly but firmly.

He smiled proudly at her, then, somewhat chivalrously but belatedly helped wrap her in a blanket or two. The gesture served more to warm her heart than her actual body. The time lord breathed on the table again. Rose was entranced.

MAY I TRY, he wrote on the stone, hesitated, then continued: TIME LORD TRICK?

Rose was too cold to give it much thought other than that she hoped it had something to do with making the room warmer. She nodded again, and let the Doctor take both her hands in his. He pulled off her gloves efficiently, clinically, then held her cold, almost-numb fingers in his warm ones. He stared intently into her eyes, saying nothing. After several moments, Rose frowned in perplexity... and to mask the nervous flutter in her chest at the contact of his firm hands and under his intense stare. His eyes were pools of warm brown. They were inviting yet unreadable sometimes, and now was one of those times.

_Can you hear me?_ she heard his voice faintly but clearly in her head. His lips had not moved.

Ah, the time lord trick was some sort of telepathy. The room was no warmer. Rose felt a twinge of annoyance. Not only would the Doctor not stop talking any more, he was probably showing off. Any other time, Rose might have been impressed. Right now, the only thing she wanted was warmth.

She nodded yet again anyway.

_You can try it too. Just concentrate on saying something to me, only do not say it out loud._

Rose closed her eyes, happy to try. She found it easy to concentrate on getting one concept through to the Doctor—_Cold!_ She opened her eyes and was rewarded to see the time lord a little taken aback.

_No need to shout._ He sounded a little peevish. He let go off her hands and moved closer to the black stone table again, this time to peer at its centre. She saw him bring out his sonic screwdriver again, change its setting, point it at the stove/fireplace, and a small blue and yellow flame burst to life. It grew as it fed upon some small white rocks, like lumps of white coal, that sat in the hollow at the table's centre.

As the fire burned Rose detected a faint scent of incense in the air that reminded her of a New Age shop back on earth. The fire was the most beautiful thing Rose had seen tonight. She held her hands closer to the flames. Delicious heat licked at her fingertips. She sighed happily. She was aware of the Doctor smiling as he watched her. He leaned on an elbow on the table and cradled his chin in that hand. Slowly the smile disappeared and the look on his face grew thoughtful.

Rose said nothing. She was no longer touching the Doctor, and with that, Rose half-hoped the telepathic connection was broken for the moment too. He had never tried that on her before, and she wondered just how far the time lord trick went, and how far it could go both ways. The Doctor had given no indication that he could use the trick to read her thoughts, nor could she read his. His instructions to her seemed to hint that he could only hear her thoughts if she directed them at him, and she could only hear him when he wanted her to. So there was that, but was it only that? And did they had to be touching too? She tried an experiment.

_Doctor?_

He raised his head from his hand a little, as if he had heard. But Rose heard nothing more from him. He was watching the fire. Yellow light played upon his face and was reflected in his eyes. All of a sudden the firelight only served to show the heavy mood that had descended upon him. There was a darkness about the Doctor, darkness that tightened her chest. She placed a hand gently on his arm. He shifted his eyes to hers and regarded her for a moment. She'd long lost count of the number of times he could make her heart skip by just looking at her. That treacherous heart was thumping harder now, unused to this silent Doctor with the intense gaze. She thought she imagined sadness in his expression. But he quickly dropped his gaze and removed her hand gently from his arm. As their fingers touched—

_Feeling better now?_

Rose checked by wriggling her toes—_toes!_—in her boots. All parts of her body were feeling back to almost-normal again. No numbness or more chattering teeth, though her face and ears still felt chilled, but it was as tolerable now. Her muscles, overworked earlier from shivering and walking on ice, were starting to relax. In fact, a sweet tiredness was stealing over all of her body. She concentrated on forming a coherent thought.

_Yes. Sleepy._

She was grateful when the doctor pulled her sleeping pallet closer and arranged the pillows around her so she had nothing else to do but simply plop back and then be in bed. She was about to do so when the Doctor caught her in firm arms and eased her into the sleeping pallet. The gesture was comforting... and unusually domestic. She enjoyed it for what it was in the moment. For all she knew, it might have been a time lord feeling sorry for someone with human physiology. She wormed deeper under the blankets, burying her ears and even the top of her head under layers of fleecy material. She looked up and caught the Doctor watching her with a "you're adorable" look. She almost wanted to hit him, except it would mean moving more than she wanted to right now. Sleep was claiming her fast. She caught one of his hands in hers.

_Stay with me_, she commanded.

_I'll be here._

Rose knew she could take that as a promise. Satisfied, she let herself slide into blessed sleep.

* * *

The Doctor watched as Rose slept. 

He wasn't playing quite fair with the telepathy stuff, he knew. The playing field was tilted more than he let on to Rose. It wasn't hard to read her, most times and most days. It wasn't that much a matter of reading her mind (not like what he had done with Reinette anyway, and that had taught him a valuable lesson—_don't do it again_). It was that Rose had become as familiar, even more familiar, to him then this new body of his. He read her face, her gestures, her physical language more easily than he understood his own new body. Knew what she looked like when she was thinking hard. Knew how to tell (most of the time) when she was teasing. Knew how to tell when she was tired, or tense, when she had set her resolve, when she was uncertain, when she was on edge, and when she felt safe.

When she was in the same room with him, he could hear her heartbeat, even her breath. He knew when it quickened, and knew she would be embarrassed if he knew and just how much he could detect. It was as if this new body was attuned to picking up her sounds, her scent, her moods, and though he had heightened senses anyway, their powers seemed magnified now when it came to Rose. Some days, and this was one of those days, it even felt like a mind-to-mind communication with Rose, even without physical contact, might be possible. He'd reflected often that his heightened senses with her had something to do with her presence during his regeneration. If it was not that, then, well, the other reason why this was so was not something that the Doctor wanted to dwell on.

There were lines he would not cross. Did not want to cross. Not with her.

His eyes fell on the words he had written on the table of black stone. They were all but gone now, the moisture having started to evaporate long ago. TIME LORD TRICK lingered faintly on the stone.

As he lay down himself down beside Rose and pulled a blanket over himself, he wondered just who he was trying to fool.


	2. Signs and Portents

Twenty minutes before the First Bell, Kinny had come to rap gently on the doors to Rose and the Doctor's room. The turquoise alien did not appear surprised when the Doctor answered the door, merely bowed a greeting before handing the Doctor some folded garments and giving him a pointed look. Then Kinny bowed again before leaving.

The Doctor looked down at the clothing, made of strange greenish ochre fibre. It took him a second or two to realize what he had in his hands. The grin on his face was wide as he shut the door and moved to wake Rose up.

* * *

Rose could not stop touching the fabric. For the twentieth time she wondered if she could keep the robes, and put the question on her mental list of things to ask as soon as they could speak. She had woken up to the doctor shaking her shoulder excitedly and gesturing with the clothing, and basically pantomiming that they were for her. She'd regarded them with doubt but the Doctor had insisted. He had pulled the blankets off of her, pulled her out of bed and starting unzipping her out of her winter coat. _That_ had woken her up like anything. She had stood there in shock, gaping like a goldfish. Then he'd pushed her toward the bathroom and practically thrown the vomit-coloured clothing after her. 

It had been a wake-up call Rose doubted she would forget any time soon. In the bathroom, out of shock, she'd held onto the garments in her hands... and realized that wherever she touched it, it radiated her own temperature back at her. She'd never changed clothing that fast... pulled nearly everything she had off, and donned the flowing long pants and a long-sleeved hooded robe that reached her knees. The fabric was slightly elastic, and the fit was perfect... and suddenly Rose had felt normal again in this freezer of a planet. Even the air around her seemed warmer now.

And as soon as she could speak again she was going to thank whoever was responsible for these garments and beg to keep them... Now, she stood with Kinny and the Doctor in front of the rose-coloured double doors outside the Audience Hall. Rose was already beginning to feel a little nervous.

_Ding._

"Bohdins," said the Doctor, right on cue. "And the robes are made of Pashiman fiber, from a plant that's also a symbiote and actually alive. _That's_ keeping you warm."

"Ah," said Rose. "I love it! But wait, how did you—"

Kinny cleared his/her throat and Rose turned towards the sound.

"And you, Kinny, I'm sorry to ask but are you.. a girl? I have no idea because I've not been around these parts..."

"Rose, I _just_ told you they were Bohdins..."

"And I have no idea what that means—"

"It means they can be anything they want to be at the right moment if you take my meaning..."

"Oh. Did they make what I'm wearing? Did you say this thing's alive?"

Kinny cleared its throat again as Rose and the Doctor were firing questions and answers at each other like speech was going out of style.

"...And _why_ is this place called the House of Love and Emptiness?" Rose asked at last.

The Doctor sputtered to a stop, and looked at Kinny.

The Bohdin shook his head at both of them, and simply pushed the double doors open. As soon as Rose and the Doctor had entered the Audience Hall, Kinny shut the door behind them, leaving them alone inside with the Teacher.

Stepping into the Audience Hall, Rose noticed with awe, was like stepping into a frozen sea. The room appeared carved of polished cerulean marble that was slightly translucent. The walls were curved in graceful arching waves, and sparkling crests at the top supported a light blue ceiling that glittered with tiny points of yellow light. The light in the room seemed to come from behind the walls. At the opposite end of the hall, there was a slightly raised dais. In front of the dais, a Bohdin was quietly sweeping the floor with an old fashioned broom. The alien looked very similar to Kinny, but lines on its face seemed to hint that this Bohdin was older.

Rose and the Doctor approached. As they got closer, Rose gave in to her screaming instincts and gave the Bohdin a deep bow. The Bohdin smiled warmly at them, resting a moment on its broom. It regarded them with old, old eyes the colour of deepest sapphire.

"The Doctor and Rose Tyler. Two very old souls... and both in very young bodies," the Bohdin said the last words with a bit of interest. The Bohdin's voice was deeper and raspier than Kinny's, but still very gentle. The alien walked to the dais, leaned the broom against a wall, and seated itself, cross-legged, on a low cushion upon the dais.

The Doctor was frowning at the Bohdin. "Are you the Teacher?"

"Yes. My name is Palzin. You can call me that if you want." Palzin gestured at them to sit. There were two cushions next to each other in front of the dais. Rose took the one on the left. The Doctor lowered himself slowly to the cushion on the right, frowning at Palzin all the while.

"You two are travellers," stated Palzin. The expression on his face was incredibly peaceful.

"Yes," said the Doctor.

"The Doctor and Rose, tell me, in your own words, why you have come here."

"I'm sorry," Rose found herself apologising, "if we're not welcome here..."

"Nonsense, my dear," Palzin smiled at the human. Kindness radiated from his deep blue eyes. "Both of you were expected, and very welcome. I'm only curious to hear what brought you at last."

The frown on the Doctor's face deepened.

"'At last'?" Rose blurted. "We got here only seconds after we decided—"

"You seem to be saying that you've expected our arrival for a while," the Doctor intoned darkly, speaking over Rose's words. "That's hard for me to believe. Either you are trying to impress us with a lie, _Teacher, _or you should explain this incredible knowledge of yours."

Palzin smiled, almost beatifically. But this did nothing to remove the darkness in the Doctor's face.

"Time lord," said Palzin. "You are not the only one who can see, at any moment, the possible threads in time and space. Our kind can as well, but better: we can see all the inevitable."

"That's impossible," said the Doctor. "Even with time travel—"

"I think you'll often be wrong, Doctor, on what is possible or not."

Rose's heart was beating in excitement. This was better than Yoda, and incredibly intriguing so far...

"Tell me why you've come," the Bohdin repeated.

"For Rose."

Palzin looked at Rose.

Rose's mouth went dry.

"I, er." If ever there was a stupid reason to seek out an alien spiritual master, Star Wars was probably it,Rose thought. She could not say it out loud. _Please, do not make me say it out loud..._

"Ah." The Teacher actually grinned at Rose, as if picking up her thought. "No, I cannot teach you to move things with your mind. Not in only a few days, anyway."

Rose found herself laughing in relief at the Bohdin's demeanor. "But can you really?"

"Of course."

"Can you show us?"

"I already have."

"When?"

"The elevator."

Rose gasped and laughed again, certain the Bohdin was pulling their leg. The Doctor looked unamused. "Really?" she asked.

"Really."

There was silence for a while. Palzin looked at the Doctor. "Say what you wish to say, time lord."

"I think you're putting us on. Or you're pulling things from our heads, saying what you think will impress us. I order you to stop. You do not have the right."

Rose swallowed. The Doctor's body was rigid, tense. The muscles in his jaw were tight. She shifted her gaze to the Teacher and was surprised to see the Bohdin radiating sadness.

"Doctor," the Bohdin said, in a voice that threatened to break Rose's heart, "What we know, we did not and do not steal from you nor Rose. We do not _pull things _from your heads without consent. You'll find our rules quite strict, especially because of what we can do. You should know as well as we do, time lord, that having certain powers brings greater responsibility."

"So all this is your knowledge of the inevitable, is it?"

"Yes." The Bohdin looked sad again.

"Why?" Rose blurted. The air was suddenly thick with tension. "Is something coming?"

Her question went unanswered. The Teacher and the Doctor had their eyes locked on each other. She sat and watched them with barely contained frustration. She got the feeling there was a conversation between the two of them that she could not hear. She could almost see their thoughts zipping through the air. Her suspicion was confirmed soon enough.

"This should not be possible," said the Doctor out loud.

"Yet it is, time lord," said Palzin.

"Why are you doing this?"

"We offer knowledge _and_ refuge. It is what we do. And I had to test you."

"_Test_ me?" The Doctor was livid.

"I cannot promise that even here things will happen as you want, Doctor. But what I can say is that you _will_ leave with what you need."

"And what do I need?"

There was a challenge in the Doctor's voice.

"A better understanding of time," the Teacher said.

The Doctor barked a laugh. The Bohdin's eyes only grew more somber.

"And one day, time lord, you may find you'll need to send a telepathic message through to another universe."

"_What?" _Rose watched as anger deserted the Doctor to be replaced by complete shock and perplexity.

"What is going on here?" Rose demanded.

"Mind games," spat the Doctor, not taking his eyes off Palzin.

"You know that isn't true, Doctor. I do not lie."

The anger was back now. "And I do not need this." The Doctor got to his feet. His intention to walk out of the room was clear as day.

"I'm staying here," said Rose stubbornly. Her instincts told her she was completely safe. The Doctor was being a little strange, or at least, more strange than usual.

"Suit yourself," said the time lord. Rose fought a wince as he stalked out of the Audience Hall, closing the door firmly behind him. Her heart felt a little colder without his presence, but she felt _right_ where she was. When she turned back to the Bohdin, Palzin regarded her with a gentle gaze.

"Are you reading my mind?" Rose asked. "Were you reading his?"

"I will not read anything that you do not want me to, Rose Tyler. I do this for everyone."

She nodded. Somehow, she trusted this. The Bohdin continued.

"Some things about you though, are very clear. Same with the Doctor. There is very little 'special' sight needed to see this, Rose, and you yourself have more than enough. Instincts are strong with you, aren't they." There was very little question in the Bohdin's voice.

Rose nodded. She suddenly felt the situation could use a little lightness. "You're very good," she said with a small smile.

The Bohdin returned her smile, and with a sparkle in its sapphire blue eyes. "And so are you. Now, I'm at your disposal. You are our honoured guests. You have questions. Ask your first one, Rose Tyler."

There was no hesitation.

"May I keep these clothes?"

* * *

_Oncoming Storm. _

The Doctor was in full rage, yet weak with a rare impotence, knowing there was _nothing, nobody_ to whom he could justly direct his anger. In the Audience Hall with Palzin, his insides had turned to ice water, faced with the impossible, incredible reality that there could be another being that could glimpse the possibilities in time—no, not the possibilities, but the inevitabilities. And he had had no doubt in the Audience Hall that the Bohdin meant inevitabilities that included the time lord. The Bohdin had seen the Doctor's past and future. His inevitable future. This unnerved the Doctor more than he could fathom. Even now, as he recalled the events in the Audience Hall, fear twisted in him. He walked the hallways of the House of Love and Emptiness, only vaguely aware of where he was going. He had to keep moving. Keep moving. _Always_, keep moving.

The Doctor and Palzin had shared a conversation telepathically, one that Rose, as usual, had picked up on even if she could not have followed it. The Doctor did not often communicate mind-to-mind with other aliens. And the Doctor had _never_ encountered a being who had offered so completely, as Palzin had done, an invitation to look into its mind, and what it saw in all of time and space. It was almost like an invitation to look into the Vortex, but worse. It was to look at all of Creation, and to know _everything_ that had happened, that was going to happen, and to know the meaning behind _all. _To recognize that to see more than one possibility in time was to see illusion. All mysteries of existence, completely solved. To hold that much in one mind would feel like complete annihilation of, well, everything. It would be...

_Emptiness._

The Doctor stopped in his tracks, and leaned against an ice-cold wall. The meaning of the name of this place now made _some_ sense. But if only that was only that... during the Doctor's moment of shock and horror at what the Bohdin knew, what it was willing to show... the Doctor himself had caught a strong foreboding, one not unfamiliar to him lately, that was confirmed only too hard by the Bohdin's words.

And no escape. None at all. Inevitability. Never had the Doctor felt so powerless. Fear gripped him. The walls were moving...

"Doctor." A Bohdin was by his side, an arm under his arm, holding him up.

"You," gasped the Doctor at the unexpected company and contact. He took another look. It was Kinny.

"The audience with the Teacher unnerved you," said Kinny. "He does that, you know."

"Tell me about it," the Doctor gasped. He found his feet and stood up on his own. "Sorry, I mean, thank you, I had a moment there—"

Kinny stepped back and shook its head, withdrawing its arms into its robes. "No need to mention it."

The two stood in companionable silence for a while.

"Would you like to be distracted with a tour of the facilities?" Kinny finally asked.

The Doctor managed a smile.

"Yes. Let's go."

* * *

Rose found the Doctor three hours later, seated on a flat rock at the bottom of a deep natural air well that opened to the sky. Kinny had helped guide her here, calling it one of their meditation gardens. It was set in a cavern. The rock walls were steep, concave in places, so that vertical sheets of ice hung down like white curtains. The sparkling ice stretched up and up for a few hundred feet, back to the planet's surface. Tiny specks of ice and snow floated down and shone in the air. Far above, the ice storm raged. Down below, the walls of the cavern thrummed softly with the wind. Rose was not sure this was the safest place to be, but it was incredibly beautiful. Small, green growing things were peeking out from under a fine dusting of ice on the cavern floor. 

The Doctor turned around before Rose had to say a word.

"Hi," she said, happy to see him.

"Hello," said the Doctor.

She sat next to him in what felt like the eye in a storm. Neither of them spoke for a while.

"This place is amazing," she said.

"I'm glad you like it," said the Doctor.

"Don't you?" asked Rose. "And what happened back there?"

"Oh... Jedi mind trick. High level stuff, you know." His tone was light. His eyes were on the sky. "What have _you_ been up to?"

"Low level stuff, I guess." Rose smiled. She looked at him, to check that the time lord was all right. He seemed relaxed again, his usual self, evasiveness included.

"Oh?"

"We chatted about some things. And he taught me some things. Mostly concentration exercises for the mind."

The Doctor nodded, still not looking at her. Rose touched a finger to his bare hand.

_Mostly so I can start doing _this_ better._

The time lord started, looked at her, then smiled. "Oh, very good."

"For a human."

"For a human." He nodded, then grinned. "How long before you can lift little space ships out of bogs, then?"

Rose laughed. "Oh, soon enough. So we can stay here till the ice storm passes?"

"You're giving me a choice?" There was something in the way he said that that made Rose wonder.

"Of course," she said. "I just... I won't insist if you think there's a good reason to leave..."

"Oh, we're fine."

"You're OK with not talking between the Night Bell and the First Bell, too?"

The Doctor looked over to see Rose's tongue peeking out between her teeth. She was back to teasing now.

"I'll find some way to survive," the Doctor said dryly.

Rose nodded then smiled. "Kinny said you got a tour just now. You want to show me where the dining hall is? We should hit it before the Midday Bell..."

The Doctor rose to his feet, dusted himself off a little, and offered Rose his arm. "Shall we?"

Rose stood up and took his arm. "Let's."

Just as they were about to step out of the cavern and back into the hallways, Rose stopped him.

"Wait," she said. "Did you try licking the ice yet?"

* * *

Author's Note: Heavy chapter coming next. 


	3. Confrontation

**Author's note:** This was the hardest chapter to write, even though it is the chapter I wanted to write the most—the one with the confrontation between the Doctor and the Teacher (Palzin). I wanted the Doctor to run into a different perspective on time, reality, inevitable changes and the things that remain unchanging—and I borrowed heavily from a certain Eastern philosophy for this, but one I presented in different words. Hopefully it isn't too maddeningly obscure. The thing to take away is... the Teacher is preparing the Doctor for the worst (that he cannot control all things, and there will be people who will soon be lost to him). He can continue in denial, or he can see time and physical separation as mere illusion, or (easiest, and most fun), he should just love Rose while he can. **If you'd like to leave a comment or review on this chapter, I'll really appreciate it. **See you on the other side.

* * *

The Doctor and Rose were back in the Audience Hall. (And he had _not_ licked the ice in the cavern, nor was he ever going to. Unless it turned out to be _evil_ ice...) Rose had told him that the Teacher had wished to speak to the both of them again after the midday meal. In the dining hall, they'd sampled some simple and warm (if bland) fare, washed down with more spicy tea. They'd had some time to explore the underground complex, and the Doctor had showed her some of its other cavern gardens, beautiful in their own stark way. Rose's favourite place was probably the cavern with the hot springs. It was clear that they would be there at some point before they left the House of Love and Emptiness, if not before the day was through. 

Right now, the Audience Hall was one-third full with about twenty-odd Bohdins, seated unmoving and unspeaking in front of the Teacher. The Doctor watched Rose as she stood beside him at the back of the Audience Hall, near the doors. For watching creatures that were outwardly doing nothing, Rose seemed intrigued and thoughtful, unconsciously stroking the fabric of her robe as she stood with her arms across her chest.

"Did you ask if you could keep the clothing, then?" The Doctor whispered, amused at her attachment to the new garments.

Rose nodded. "They don't come in pink though. I asked," she joked, whispering back.

"Oh, it's not bad."

"I'm not sure this is my colour."

"It's a very, um, 'earthy' look for you," the Doctor said. "Appropriate, I would think." The ochre in the robes did flatter the colour of her skin and her hair, and the lack of make-up on her for once made her look more natural, more real.

Rose smiled at him, and the Doctor was struck by something.

"That," the Doctor said softly, touching her jaw as she smiled, "is really all you need."

A small catch of breath, the sound of the increased tempo of her heartbeat. The Doctor dropped his hand quickly, looking away. The Bohdins were filing out of the hall now, walking towards and past them towards the doors. Many of the blue-green aliens smiled at Rose and the Doctor and bobbed up and down in small bows and curtseys. The Doctor nodded as they walked past. He was also conscious of Rose's faint frown, and her heartbeat that remained loud, but was slowing to its regular tempo now.

The Doctor left Rose behind him and strode to the front of the Audience Hall. He heard her move to catch up. On the dais, Palzin waited, a beam on its face for the Doctor.

"Time lord," said Palzin. "My heart gladdens to see you."

The Doctor slowed down and stopped ten feet from the dais. He did not return the Teacher's luminous smile. He was taller the seated Bohdin, that he knew was unarmed and truly no physical threat, but something about something about the Teacher made him tremble inside, especially recalling their earlier exchange. He stood with his hands in his pockets, maintaining the façade of control. "Question," he said.

"Ask, Doctor."

"Did I pass your 'test'?" asked the Doctor.

"You have fair telepathic ability. That was what was assessed," said Palzin simply.

Beneath the outward conversation, the Doctor had another agenda.

_You were telling me something is coming. _The time lord fired this thought at the Teacher.

The Bohdin answered without a stir or pause. _Yes, time lord. _

"'Fair'?" said the Doctor aloud, raising his eyebrows. _Why bother, I mean, why would you offer to show me the future if there is nothing I can do to change it?_

_There _is_ nothing you can do to change it. But there is always something that can be done to make the inevitable easier to bear. I'm offering that knowledge, time lord._

"You hardly need me to praise, Doctor," said Palzin. "To be honest, I think you're actually out of practice." The alien gave no outward sign of their silent conversation.

"I think I do very well, thank you. Not sending any inter-universe communiques any time soon, either."_What makes you think I need your help?_

_I don't think it, time lord, I know it. _

"I can only offer knowledge and refuge, as I've said before," said the Teacher. "Any Bohdin here will tell you that. But it is out of our hands how what we teach is learned and how it is applied."

"Oh? Yet you seem very sure that your teaching will always result positively." _Answer me this: How does one make the inevitable easier to bear? You contradict yourself, if the inevitable cannot be changed._

_Wrong, time lord. You may be intelligent but you are foolish. There is a force greater than inevitability._

The Doctor laughed in disbelief. _That statement in itself is ridiculous._

"We are indeed very sure," said the Teacher. _Not so, time lord, and your burden is great._

The Doctor felt a chill in his bones at that.

"You two are doing it again," said Rose.

"Yes, I suppose we are, Rose." _I need no help. _

_A lie does not become truth just by reiteration, time lord._

_A lesson you would do well to apply yourself._

"Stop it," said Rose.

_Pettiness becomes no one, time lord. My offer stands. There is always, has always been, a force greater than inevitability._

"Doctor." It was Rose's voice. He heard concern in it. He ignored it.

_Fine. Tell me, then._

"Doctor." Rose touched his hand.

Several things happened at once.

The Teacher's eyes blazed and the Doctor stumbled as he saw the world turn to white. Time was_ compressed. _The room disappeared. Rose disappeared. Eyesight was ripped away, to be replaced by another kind of sight. Past and future became one. The Doctor stumbled blindly. Heard the Teacher's voice. Heard many voices. Heard his own. Heard Rose's voice at the same time he could not hear it.

_You will lose her. No. Yes. You will lose her even though there is nothing of her to lose. I will lose her when she is everything for me to lose. I cannot. I'm here. It's already happened. It hasn't happened yet. It's happening now. She's gone. She was gone before. I'm here. You have now. I've lost now. It's now again. Now's gone. I'm here. She's come again. No. She came and went. Who's here? I'm here. Nobody's here. What have I lost? You've lost nothing. You had nothing to begin with. Lost what? I'm here. No, it was everything. It'll be everything. It is everything now. That is meaningless, time lord. You cannot lose that. I'm here. You have me. What do I have? Nothing._

"Doctor!"

The Doctor moaned and grabbed his head. He dropped to his knees but that pain didn't even register. Too many voices. This was the Teacher's doing, driving him nearly mad. Too many people, from too many times, too many that he had lost, was losing, would lose—his past, present and future. He had seen the future for a second, then Palzin had snatched the sight from him again. Rose's touch. The Teacher's doing, the alien's handiwork in amplifying her mind. Nothing against her will. Nothing against his. The Doctor gasped at the shock. He could not form coherent thought, could only direct pain and anger toward the Bohdin on the dais, who remained calm as ever.

_I'm not done yet, time lord. You, who can feel the spinning and falling of planets around their suns, the spinning and falling of galaxies around their cores... You think that a thousand years is an aeon, when it is but a blink. You grasp and hold one thing over everything else, when it is equal and inseparable from everything, only illusion that lends it independent existence._

He could see again. The floor of the hall was crumbling under him, disintegrating and burning into fire, then night. The Doctor looked up, and saw the Teacher cracking like glass, dissolving into dead cells and dust. He looked at his hands, and saw them age, age to the point they no longer looked like hands but claws, saw them devoured by rot and worms that were in turn devoured by vacuum. And Rose—he saw _the fire in her heart, the earth of her flesh and skin, the air in her lungs, the liquid in her veins... molecules and atoms losing their strong force and flying apart, it had always happened and was happening now and will happen... _just the illusion of time holding her up as the illusion of something real, when she was only as real as everything that would be unmade in the end.

_Have you figured it out yet, time lord? The counter to emptiness? Can you see it? Use my eyes._

Rose. Time stretched around her. The answer was rolling off of her _now_, dripping off her hair, flowing from her skin like water, shining from her heart and her eyes and lips and fingers and enveloping him and everything he could see. He'd seen her once like that before, on the Game Station. But this now was only in his head, and the light was pure blinding white. Yet it _wasn't_ in his head; it was what he could see with Palzin's eyes.

The lesson was suddenly over. The Teacher slammed the time and mental barriers back down.

The stone floor was cold next to his cheek and the right side of his body. Rose's arms were around him, and her touch was like fire. He felt her skin against his, felt its heat and terrible impermanence, and suddenly_knew_, that in infinite time and space, every _now _was the centre of eternity, every _here_ was the centre of everything. And the counter to all the emptiness... is, was...

_Almost there, time lord._

The Doctor sobbed, and pulled Rose to him like the world was ending.

* * *

The Teacher shifted on the dais. Rose looked up from the Doctor in her arms and watched the Bohdin rise to its feet. It approached her slowly and laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. 

"Will he be OK?" she asked. The Doctor's face was buried against her shoulder. His arms were a vice-grip around her body, stealing her breath and chasing nearly all logical thought from her head. His body shuddered. She'd seen his face before he'd fallen to the floor, barely recognisable as it had twisted with pain one second, unwound with elation the next. She'd watched the expressions on his face change from one to the other again and again, coiling-uncoiling-recoiling as he struggled with a vision she could not see.

"He will," said Palzin. "He's just stubborn." The Teacher squeezed her shoulder, and Rose had to smile a little at that. The Bohdin's hand then withdrew, and the alien stood vigil for a while over them both. His presence was gentle as always, and now faded into the background. Moments passed.

Time stopped for Rose in the cerulean room of frozen waves as she held the Doctor. Water threatened to crash down around them but never would. She wondered if it would always be like this, her holding on to him whenever she could, not knowing what the future would bring—or knowing but not caring because it always felt like the waves were crashing but never were, and they would not be real until they did. And until then... until then, it would not matter, because she was here with him now and time had no meaning.

"I will take my leave now, Rose Tyler." The Teacher's voice cut softly through the silence.

Rose only nodded, then she looked up. "What did you show him?" she asked Palzin.

"Only the truth." The Bohdin gave a sad smile, and left them alone in the Audience Hall.

"Rose," whispered the Doctor.

"I'm here," she said.

Another shudder ran through him. "I..."

"It's a bit hard to hear you, Doctor," Rose said. She felt, more than heard, the words he was uttering into her shoulder.

The time lord loosened his hold a little, but only a little, enough to turn his head up towards hers. His eyes were barely open. They moved beneath his lids, as if he was dreaming. Rose laid her fingers against his pale face. The Doctor gasped at the contact.

_If I open my eyes, _she heard the Doctor ask, _what will I see?_

_Me. Just me._

The time lord's brown eyes snapped open and devoured her. "You. Just you..." he breathed. The Doctor struggled to get up. Rose helped him, though her own body ached from muscles held still for too long, and tingled from the returning blood circulation that'd been cut off from her legs. None of that mattered, as long as he was all right. She felt the Doctor envelope her in an unexpected hug. She returned it. Hugs were always good, though this one was strange. It felt desperate.

"Will you ever tell me what you saw, Doctor?" she ventured to ask.

The Doctor stepped back from her, but kept his hand firmly in hers. "No. I don't know." His eyes were clouded with darkness. "I need time." He pulled her along with him as he moved for the doors. This was the Doctor she was used to again, and she went with him; he was always moving, and she just catching up. Some days though, and this was one of these days, it felt like he was running, running as fast as he could from something.

"_What did you show him?" she had asked Palzin._

"_Only the truth."_

Her Doctor. Her stubborn Doctor. She followed him through the hallways and would go wherever he wanted to go.

* * *

**Author again:** I hope you enjoyed this! I'd love to know if you did (or not)! The next chapter will probably be the one you've been waiting for. The Doctor needs to act.


	4. Love and Emptiness

**Author's Note: The rating of this story has been changed to Mature.** I wasn't planning it, but this was the direction the chapter took, and probably the one you started reading this story for! I**f you're offended by written (consensual) sex, please stop reading now, or ask me for a less adult version of this chapter.** I _do _have a slightly more veiled version and decided to post the stronger, full-length version. To recap, the last chapter was the confrontation between the Teacher and the Doctor. It put the Doctor in a bit of a dark place.

* * *

Back in her room that was _their_ room now, Rose lay on her sleeping pallet with pleasant tiredness in her body. Her eyes were open, keeping the Doctor within her sight as he sat beside her and watched the flames and the tea kettle in the centre of the fireplace. 

Questions burned within Rose, but she dared not ask them, and definitely not while they were observing silence. (The Night Bell had _dinged_, oh, fifteen minutes or so ago. She could not tell.) If she had to guess, she would not think the Doctor especially enamoured of any sort of mind trick right now (time lord or Jedi). So she'd given him his space, or at least that mental space. After Palzin's lesson, she had walked with the Doctor through the underground hallways, walked and walked in circles, their hands locked together in his death grip. Finally he'd looked at her, and she had suggested the hot springs. But there, she had entered the steaming hot water alone (daring to take the robe and pants off, but keeping her brassiere and knickers). He'd declined to join her, but did finally let go of her hand for that.

She'd never really been half-naked in front of the time lord before, even if today it had just been for seconds between pulling off the Pamishan garments and jumping into the hot milky water. The effect of her half-nakedness on the time lord, if she could judge from today, was to make him look up at the ceiling and spout inanities about mineral waters until she put her clothing back on.

Not the most flattering reaction, to say the least, but at least it'd drawn the Doctor out of his silent, dark brooding. At least until the Night Bell had rung again.

Rose rolled onto her side and spooned him, or as much as she could spoon him with her lying down and him sitting up. The time lord looked down at her and gestured at her to sit up. She did so, and was offered a cup of fresh tea. She accepted it gratefully, using the contact with his skin, as she took the the cup from his hands...

_Thank you._

He nodded. Rose raised the cup to her lips and sipped at the hot, sweet and spicy liquid appreciatively. Her nose detected notes of ginger, honey and cloves. Her eyelids fluttered closed as she savoured it.

_Rose._

She looked up. The Doctor was lightly touching her naked ankle. (She'd kicked off her footwear in preparation for bed.) The time lord's own cup of tea sat forgotten on the stone table.

She raised her eyebrows at the Doctor.

_I'd like to stay here with you again tonight._

Her hand holding the cup shook for a half-second. But she got it under control and raised _one _eyebrow. He hadn't really had to ask. It had been obvious to her that he needed the company.

_Doctor, was this tea a bribe then?_

_Oh no, tea is tea. Free radicals and tanni—oh, you're joking._

Rose grinned and enjoyed his look of surprised annoyance for a moment.

_You can stay, Doctor. I'll keep you from the nightmares._

She meant it lightly, but the time lord froze, and Rose sensed him withdrawing into himself again. She put down her tea and grabbed his hand. He looked at her face wordlessly.

_Stay, Doctor. It's fine. I would have asked if you hadn't. _It was a bit of a lie, but not too much of one. She trusted him completely, and it was such a small request for him to ask from her.

But emotions were flitting across his face now that she'd never seen before. So quick, she couldn't be sure, yet deep inside she sensed fear, pain, dread and strange desperation. She needed to distract him.

_Doctor, drink your tea. _She phrased it as an order and gestured with her eyes at his abandoned cup. This time it was his turn to look quizzically at her and she put on her best commanding face.

_My room. My rules._

He smiled and downed his spicy tea obediently, and Rose finished hers as well. She kept his hand in hers, not breaking the contact as she started preparing the sleeping pallet for them both. Ulterior motives were far from her mind, instead, she recalled sleepovers that she used to have as a child, even with Mickey. Nights of innocent fun, staying up talking with friends, playing stupid games and having pillow fights. A few party things (like the pillow fight) would be difficult to do while they were observing silence... but Rose was determined she would not let the Doctor feel alone.

_Get comfortable. _For this, she let go of his hand, and distracted herself with arranging pillows and cushions, making a small pillow fort around the sleeping pallet, while he divested himself of coat, shoes and jacket. She made him lie down, and he did so, lying on his side, facing her. Rose swatted him and made him turn around so back was towards her. Then in a motherly fashion, Rose unfolded one of the lighter blankets over them both. As she lay down behind him, the time lord's hand crept backwards to seek her skin. Rose slapped at his hand, giggling inwardly, placing it firmly at his side. Then she made herself comfortable and started writing slowly on his back with her finger.

A GAME.

The time lord nodded slowly.

She drew a rectangular box on his back, with windows and a small light at the top. She touched his hand when she had finished. _What was that?_

_The TARDIS, _he answered.She almost heard a small chuckle of amusement in her mind.

She drew a shape like a pepper shaker next, finishing her drawing by touching his hand.

_Dalek. Give me something else._

She drew another.

_A turtle?_

_Very good, _Rose thought at the Doctor.

_Keep going, _came the smug reply.

* * *

The Doctor let Rose test him. His senses, even through his shirt, picked up her touch like she was writing into his bare skin, and as clearly as if he could see her do it. The silly game was a welcome distraction, keeping him focused on the harmless surprises as she drew symbols and simple pictures onto his back. He forced himself to think like she would... what she had seen, sometimes what they had seen together, what symbols she would use, and guessed correctly as, among other things, she drew a fish, a cat, a banana, the Face of Boe (that one was hard), a heart, Zzz's (_I'm getting a little sleepy, _she thought to him) and the infinity sign. The last one made him pause. His two hearts thumped a little louder as her finger had traced the shape, two loops, joined together, unending. 

Her hand was still touching his, waiting for his answer.

_Infinity_, thought the Doctor.

Rose was silent and unmoving. The Doctor listened, heard her slow and deep breathing, and realised that Rose had fallen asleep.

Humans were fond of sleep just a little too much for the Doctor's liking. As quietly as he could, he turned around, taking care not to disturb his companion. He carefully laid Rose's right hand between them; her left was tucked beneath a pillow. He lay his left hand next to her right, just touching hers. He drank in the sight of her like she was water. Warm firelight played over them both and in her hair. She was still clothed in the Pamishan garments ("They don't need laundering, ever," he'd told her earlier, "That would be the end of them.") and he found himself suddenly jealous of their closeness to her, the way the hood of the robe, drawn up above her head, had fallen down to obscure and softly caress her cheek. Her face, clean of make-up, was relaxed. She was so young, just a child-woman born of a race with a short lifespan, innocent, yet full of more compassion, generosity, wisdom and bravery than he had seen of almost anyone in his near-millennium of travel.

And he would lose her.

She wouldn't always be here in his sight. She wouldn't always be here beside him, to touch, or to touch him... the air she breathed in right now, the same air he shared with her, was both keeping her alive ageing every cell in her body... her life would be burned up, used up before his. It was slipping away even now. The curse of the time lords, he'd told her before. He would live on, alone. That was an inevitability.

_Doctor. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep._

Rose was blinking drowsily and guiltily, heart rate slowly speeding up to her waking tempo.

_Why not? You need the rest._

_I was planning on staying up with you._

_Why?_

She looked at him then, with a small frown on her face. Her lips were slightly parted, as if she grasped for what to say. Faintly, the Doctor could feel her mind forming thoughts.

_I... I felt you didn't want to be alone._

Something cracked within the Doctor. It felt like a dam breaking. Before he was even aware of what he was doing, Rose was in his arms, and her lips were warm and soft against his. Who had initiated the kiss, he didn't know, but it was his hands pressing her body against him in desperation to affirm her reality, his tongue searching, finding and tasting her mouth, his body aflame with want as he felt her starting to respond, his mind flooding with disbelief and elation as he sensed her mind there with him, or his in hers; Rose speechless with surprise, desire, love, and consent.

He broke from the kiss, panting. "I," he breathed, whispering because he was observing silence, whispering because he couldn't find his voice, "I didn't mean... I wouldn't want... I'm sorry..."

Rose shut him up with her lips. They tasted of honey and spices and tea.

_I'll make you even more sorry if you stop right now. _Her tongue was shyly but surely exploring his mouth, curling against his tongue, and the time lord suppressed a moan as Rose's hands were running over his body now, slipping under his shirt and being warm, teasing and hungry on his skin. At the same time sensation flooded him he was aware of Rose's mind... _Rose_,_this... you have to know... it'll be different... different with me. _

_I feel you in my mind,_she thought with a bit of wonder. _It's different from before. I don't even have to project... is this what you mean? _Rose had stopped the kiss and her lips were beside his ear. Her hot breath on his skin was doing things to the coherency of his thought.

_Yes, and I can't control it... or, I mean, I thought I could but we're past that point and if you want this to stop I will stop..._

He felt her disbelief, desire and impatience as surely as it was his own emotion. _Are you mad? _she thought at him, and now her teeth, her teeth were on his earlobe, nibbling, and the time lord nearly felt his eyes roll up in his head at the sensation. He was losing control, of his desire, of the situation, even his time lord mind tricks; he wanted this, wanted her, at the same time he couldn't let himself, yet he couldn't remember why...

She felt his hesitation. _Doctor, I'm not a child. Haven't been for a while._As if to prove her point, her hands were busy working through the buttons on his shirt. Her leg was deliciously wrapped around him, a sensual trap he didn't want to escape. _I want this. I don't care if I only have this, if I only get tonight. I don't care. Don't protect me. I'll only let you stop if you... if you... don't actually want this too._

The Doctor's hearts were pounding like trip-hammers as Rose slowed down then, waiting for his answer. She withdrew a little—the Doctor's body screamed in protest—but then stopped to gaze in his eyes. Her eyes were cool, at the same time her desire was clear, and the time lord marvelled at her collectedness at the situation, while he wanted nothing more than to lose himself in her, now, always; and if he couldn't have forever, he wanted _now._ Nothing else had meaning any more. He felt her love surround him and bless him like cool water, remembered the light flowing from her that he had seen earlier through different eyes, felt her presence surrounding and holding him in her mind, when before he felt like he'd keep falling, falling forever through emptiness.

Now. Was all he had. Here. The only thing that mattered. Trembling, the time lord raised his hands to Rose's face, tremulously placed his fingers on her temples.

_I want this. And I... I need to warn you... there are complications when a time lord... dances..._

He felt her amusement at his euphemism. _OK, sex with aliens will be weird. I get it, Doctor. Not human._

_Rose._

She became attentive.

_Rose, I'm in your head. That's _one _complication. And I didn't even mean to do so. I won't look at...won't look at any memory you do not want me to see. I won't hear any of your thoughts that you do not want to hear. I promise that. But-but—_

_This mind-reading, Doctor. Is it only one way? _Somehow she always got to the heart of the matter immediately, she always did, his Rose.

_No, it is not._

_Then I'll do the same for you, Doctor. _There was only certainty and assurance in her answer.

The Doctor drew a shaky breath into his lungs, and concentrating, drew Rose's mind into his. He let her feel his desire for her, his arousal, the mad pounding of his two hearts, the ache and tingle in his body, his heightened senses, and heard Rose gasp—felt it as well, and stole her breath away again as he kissed her.

_Any more time lord sex tricks I should be aware of? _He heard Rose ask, and the time lord breathed a silent laugh into their kiss. Her hands were pulling his now-unbuttoned shirt off his shoulders—or trying to. He rolled onto his back and carried her with him... with coordinated thought they managed to get his shirt off him, or at least him out of the shirt. The cold air of the room met his skin, but he hardly felt it, Rose was his only reality. She straddled his hips—and she let him feel how he felt under her, his erection a delicious hardness she could feel even through their clothes—and then she was playfully pulling the blankets over them both completely, making them a tent against the cold. His hands were sneaking up her robe, discovering the happy surprise that she was naked under it.

_Lean down, _he told her, and was guided by her thoughts and his own desire to explore as he raised her robe above her breasts and touched his tongue to her left nipple, then drew it into his mouth and teased with his teeth. He almost heard her moaning in his head as he equally teased her right breast with his fingers, then switched tongue and fingers to the other breast. Her skin was sweetness and a little bit of salt, it was heat and softness, all of her vibrating softly with her heartbeat. He moved his hands to her waist, pulled on the tied sash that held her pants up. Felt the sash come undone, heard the gentle _swish_ as he coaxed the garment down over her pert bum and down the smooth silky skin of her thighs. Almost groaned with disappointment as he found an obstacle—knickers—between his hand and the heat between her legs. Rose felt his disappointment—or was it hers, or hers as well—and soon they were stripping each other of everything they had on.

The light was barely there with them under the blanket. It was just enough the Doctor to take in her beauty, while Rose explored him with her hands. Their heavy breathing rang loudly in the silence in their space; it was one of the most beautiful sounds either had ever heard, on that they were agreed. He shivered as Rose's hands found his cock, first running her fingers lightly down his length before she wrapped them around him. _Human enough, _he felt her smile. He let her feel his pleasure as she stroked him... and then both his hearts almost stopped as she moved to take him into her warm, wet mouth. _Rose, Rose! _He felt Rose's love, pride and amusement as he writhed in pleasure under her attention; was aware that he tasted slightly salty to her. Oblivion nearly claimed him when she sucked him gently; then used her tongue, then used her teeth _oh, oh so gently _in ways he never thought could feel so... fantastic. He felt Rose's mind there with him, using the knowledge of what he could feel, and like a professional was playing him like a violin, and as if she'd been doing so since forever. He groaned into her mind, almost wanting to beg for mercy... could barely control himself as, like the minx she was, Rose took him as deep into her mouth as she could, then drew him out again, and did that again, and again, and all the while letting her tongue play and flick over the head of his erection.

_Rose! _Finding no mercy, the time lord started distracting Rose with thoughts of what he wanted to do with her... he wanted to taste her more of skin with his tongue, wanted to taste her _there_, wanted to feel her body under his as he filled the core of her, wanted to drive deep into the centre of her and feel her around him, wanted to make her come hard enough to scream.

_Well, when you put it that way... _Rose withdrew her mouth from him and he saw her smile in the dim light. His turn. Gently but firmly, he pushed her onto her back, and admired at the sight of her golden hair spilling across the pillow. He silently voiced a firm telepathic command for her to stay as she was, which she received with wonder, and as she obeyed, he traced a path with his tongue down her belly, and his fingers touched the wet heat between her legs.

* * *

She felt him enter her mind again, and gasped as in the same moment her centre was explored by his fingers. She felt his happy surprise at her slickness, then a shock of pleasure through her body as his wandering tongue flicked against her clit experimentally. She shuddered, then kept on shuddering as the Doctor plied his tongue and fingers more insistently, guided by the feelings he received from her and the near-incoherent half-formed thoughts in her head: _harder, faster, no, softer, there... _And then stars were bursting in her head and it was all she could do to ride the shock waves until she became aware again of the Doctor, lying next to her, cradling his cheek in one hand and giving her the proudest little smirk. 

_Good god, you're insufferable._ As soon as she gained control over her limbs and had recovered her breath, she pressed herself to him and kissed his lips. She tasted herself on him... felt his intoxication at her own scent and taste, and was soon breathless again he snogged her but good, tongue tangling with tongue, her head full of both her own mind and his, confusing their thoughts but sensations but neither caring. He was on his back now, and she possessively kissing down his neck, reaching for him and positioning him between her legs so that he was just poised at her entrance. She felt the Doctor groan silently as she waited there a moment, and heard just the softest, shyest plea from him. She starting easing her weight down upon him, biting his skin to keep from moaning as she felt his length push up into her until he filled her completely.

She had no idea if the pleasure she had was purely her own or his as well, had no idea which thoughts were his or hers, the only thing real to him any more was sensation. Holding Rose close (even though they were the closest now that they would ever get), he rolled her over so he was on top. He had enough cognizance remaining to grasp at her hands and find them. Amidst the overwhelming bliss his senses were transmitting, this—her hands in his—this was always familiar, and _right_... he wanted this to last forever, and if he couldn't, then this was the memory he would always want to escape to, again and again.

_Rose, Rose, Rose. _They were moving together, her name on his lips and in his mind, her mind alive with love and wonder, then with building pleasure as he pounded into her, his tempo slowly increasing with urgency. She felt him nearing the edge, and as she was there with him, feeling the hotness, tightness and slickness of herself around him, all his nerve endings alight with sweet fire, and she came again... Somewhere far away, she heard herself crying out softly, heard the Doctor's soft groan a split second later as her muscles contracted around him and his body melted/spilled into hers... saw/felt/heard his universe explode with supernovae and somewhere, in that space after that, that echoed only with the sound of their breathing and their heartbeats, she was with him, next to him. They floated in darkness. The world had disappeared, _they_ had disappeared. Sight was gone, and hearing was fading. Rose felt neither cold nor hot; she had no body, she had not even any sense of time or space. For suddenly becoming a disembodied entity in the middle of emptiness, Rose felt strangely calm. The Doctor was with her.

_Where are we? Did we reach Nirvana or something?_

The Doctor laughed, laughed hard with love and happiness. _I don't think so._

_It's empty here. There's nothing here._

_No, I guess there isn't._

_How did we get here?_

_Rose, I think we actually managed to shag each other's brains out._

If she had had eyes to roll in this place, she would have. _Seriously, Doctor._

_Seriously._ And if he had had a mouth to grin, she knew he would have.

_Can we get back?_

_I think we can. Just concentrate, you'll be able to hear your heartbeat. Follow it. But Rose—_

_What?_

_Promise me... I know I may not be making sense, but promise me... _

_What, Doctor?_

_I don't know how we got here, but the world ever goes away like this again... if all the universes should end, promise me you'll be here with me._

_I would but I don't know if I'll know how to do that, Doctor._

_Somehow, I think that if anyone can figure it out, you will._

_If you're sure, Doctor, then I promise._

There was silence after that, but somewhere, far away, back where the world was, Rose was aware of a tender kiss on her forehead. She heard the steady thump of a heartbeat she knew was hers, and followed it back.


	5. The Storm Will Pass

**Author's Note:** _Sorry for the wait! Completing this next-to-last chapter was delayed by life and by all the excitement over some Season 4 spoilers. After the last chapter, I'm slowly trying to ease Rose and the Doctor back into the shy yet strong relationship you see between them near the end of Season 2. I'm canon-crazy, etc etc. More Season 1 and 2 hints in here. Enjoy!_

* * *

The Doctor was the first between the two of them to wake up, as usual. Except this was the first time he was waking up with his cheek pressed to Rose's bare shoulder, dangerously close to drooling onto her skin. Feeling a little thankful he woke up just in time to save his dignity, he did give his sleeping (and deliciously warm) companion a hug before putting some of his clothing back on to protect against the cold. Time lord physiology was great, but not _that_ great. He also piled more blankets on top of Rose and checked on the fire in their room, ready to put another pot of water on the boil for tea when Rose woke up.

He should have been used to surprises when it came to Rose. Some things from the night before were puzzling even now, but pleasantly puzzling all the same. He was happy some things could still surprise a time lord. He also had to recognise so many of those surprises came from Rose. Once the ice storm passed over, he was going to take Rose away from this ice ball of a planet (after digging the TARDIS out from under ice, he expected) and go somewhere warm... and safe. And where there were no Yodas running about. It wouldn't be domestic move...just a bit of a rest somewhere until his earlier feelings of premonition would pass... and surely they would. They had to.

Now... what was the protocol for male human behaviour the morning after the deed? Something about breakfast. He would need to venture out of their room for food, unfortunately. He began pulling on his jacket and coat, socks and shoes. His awareness of Rose and her heartbeat and breathing told him she would sleep for another hour at least. Silently, he moved to the door and eased himself out, closing the door carefully behind him. 

The dining hall, according to his mental map from the day before, was a little ways away on his right. The hallways were empty, except for a Bohdin in yellow robes that seemed to be headed in the direction of the dining hall as well. The Doctor drew up beside the Bohdin, intending to flash a silent smile in the interests of being friendly. The Bohdin beat him to it, turning its head to flash the Doctor a grin without slowing in its steps.

_Good morning, Doctor._

Palzin it was, then. Not quite the Bohdin the Doctor would have liked to meet first thing this morning, but there was nothing to be done for it now.

_Good morning. Going for breakfast?_

_Not today, Doctor. But please, enjoy yours._

_Anything profound for me to contemplate today, then?_

The Bohdin flashed the Doctor another grin as they walked side by side. _I think you have plenty to contemplate already, time lord. But I will see Rose later today._

_Can you tell me when the ice storm above us will pass?_

_Tonight, time lord. You will leave tomorrow morning. And the TARDIS will be free of the ice, not to worry._

The time lord slowed in his tracks, frowning at the Teacher. _I never told you about the TAR—_

But Palzin had turned into another hallway that led away from the dining hall. The Bohdin simply waved its hand, as if dismissing the time lord (or his surprise), and continued on its way.

* * *

Rose awoke to the smell of hot tea and warm bread, the best smell she could recall ever waking up to in her life. It almost made up for the cold that was always in this room despite the fire, and the painful rush of adrenaline that came when she sat up, and had to rescue the blankets slipping off of her because she was stark naked beneath them...

A suppressed giggle came from the direction of the Doctor, who was up and dressed and seated at the table/fireplace with the widest smile on his face. Amusement glittered in his eyes. Rose rolled her eyes up and lay back down on the sleeping pallet, ducking and reaching beneath the blankets for her clothes. Another contained giggle came from the Doctor, and Rose almost shrieked when a hand grabbed her ankle. 

_Got you._

_Where are my clothes? Doctor! _He was pulling the blankets off her now. Rose had to fight him to keep the blankets around her, both out of fear of the cold and for her modesty. Who knew the Doctor could be such a cad... She slapped at him helplessly with one hand as soon as the other had a secure grip on the covers protecting her modesty.

_Oh, I've seen it all. It's too late._

As a last-ditch effort, Rose leaned her weight into the silently laughing Doctor, pushing him over and pinning him to the floor cushions. His body continued to shake with mirth as he stopped trying to take the blankets away and instead wrapped his arms around Rose. She felt his breath and his lips against her hair. Liking where she was, Rose stopped moving. _Good morning, _she thought.

_Good morning. Oh yes._

Rose punched the Doctor lightly in the shoulder before trying to sit up. He let her go, and she was elated to see that his spirits were much improved this morning. Their weird mind-link from the night before, though, was gone. Probably a good thing, because right now Rose needed to use the bathroom, was ravenous, and a flush was creeping up her neck to her face under the Doctor's playful gaze. She mustered up the best glare that she could. 

The time lord countered that by tossing a pile of her clothing at her head.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Rose emerged refreshed from the bathroom, dressed and ready for the day. The First Bell had _dinged_ while she was pulling the Pamishan robes on, and now she stormed toward the time lord, who was calmly sipping tea and giving her a wide-eyed and innocent look.

"Oh, you are in such big trouble..." Rose began.

"Breakfast is getting cold," interrupted the Doctor in a matronly tone. "And no need to thank me, " he added magnanimously. "I just happened to be up early and thought I'd get some breakfast for my lovely companion."

Rose stopped for a moment as uncertainty came over her. She shook it off, not wanting to make more than what was necessary about how the Doctor had just referred to her. She was, after all, and had always been, his companion. That had not changed. If anything had at all. She put on a smile, and sat down at the table. "What's good?" she asked, suddenly trying to fight off a strong bout of self-consciousness.

"Well, there's this..." And the Doctor unleashed a torrent of information at her, all about grains and the difference between jams and preserves and how Bohdins procured, and made, and preserved food on the ice planet, and Rose was barely listening as she nodded and tried to swallow past the now-unshakeable catch in her throat. It was insecurity, utter insecurity and doubt after the night before, Rose knew. Questions crowded her mind, some that she'd entertained and brushed off in the past; Rose knew she couldn't be his first, nor the last; she didn't know what it meant, and how many companions he'd had that he'd _had_, if Sarah Jane Smith had ever been in _this_ situation before, and just what had happened if she had and how had she gotten over it. Mickey would so taunt her if he was here and if he ever knew... except her old best friend was now in _another universe_. It hurt.

"Rose?"

Rose blinked. "Yes?" she said vaguely, emerging from her reverie. She lifted her gaze to meet the Doctor's eyes, which were serious. Did he stop talking a while ago? How long ago?

"You were just sitting there," said the Doctor.

"I, er... information overload took some of my appetite away I think..."

"Really? I could almost hear your stomach growling a while ago..."

She didn't know how to answer. Homesickness and loneliness suddenly washed over her, and while she was here with the Doctor, she suddenly felt like the only human girl in the universe, who needed to talk to someone, someone who wasn't her mum and wasn't the Doctor because he was exactly what she needed to figure out. Had anything changed between them? Did she want that, or didn't she?

"Rose?" The Doctor was snapping his fingers in front of her eyes.

Rose blinked again. "I-I'm fine, Doctor. I think I may need to talk a walk. Um, to get the blood moving." She rose to her feet.

"Excellent idea," said the Doctor, moving as well.

"No. Just by myself, I mean. You can stay here," Rose stammered, under the look of puzzlement that the Doctor gave her. He settled back down reluctantly. "I'll be back soon." She couldn't leave the room fast enough, and closed the door behind her with shaking hands. What was wrong with her? She stood in the hallway a moment trying to calm her heart and her breathing.

"Miss Tyler?" A Bohdin was coming down the hallway towards her and she recognised Kinny.

"Kinny, yes. How are you?"

"I'm fine, Miss Tyler." The Bohdin drew up beside her. "Are you well? Do I need to get you anything?"

Rose laughed nervously. "I... I seem to be having some sort of panic attack, which is ridiculous... I'm fine..."

Kinny continued to regard her with concern. "The Teacher has requested an audience with you, Miss Tyler. Would you like to accept?"

"Right now?"

"Yes."

"Where, in the Audience Hall?"

"No, the Teacher is actually up in the Temple currently. It's on the surface. It may be cold there—I mean, _colder_."

"Oh." Rose had half a mind to accept anyway. But thankfully, it seemed Kinny had prepared for this. On one of its arms, there were draped two heavy yellow cloaks, the same colour as its robes. The Bohdin offered one cloak to Rose, who took it and put it on.

"Very warm. And swishy," said Rose in admiration.

"Pardon?"

"Nothing. Let's go."

She followed Kinny to the glass elevator, which took several minutes to rise gently to the Temple and the planet surface. As soon as the glass doors opened, Rose felt cold wind on her face. It took a bit of getting used to. Rose tried to breathe slowly, taking care not to draw the frigid air into her lungs too quickly. Concentrating like this, she found it easier to push her thoughts into the background, and looked around the glittering building of carved ice that was the Temple. The Teacher was in front of them, near the main door, looking out on a landscape that was nothing but grey and white. The Bohdin was not moving, but the wind was playing havoc with its robes. Rose walked toward Palzin, and was a bit relieved when the Teacher turned around and walked toward her to meet her halfway. 

"Miss Rose Tyler." The Teacher bowed low, and Rose returned the gesture. Behind her, Kinny remained by the elevator.

"Teacher. You wished to see me?"

Palzin smiled. Wordlessly, he led Rose to what looked like a new wing of the Temple, where the walls were simple and unadorned. He laid a blue-green hand on a plain wall of ice. Rose felt the wind pick up, blowing around and past them and carrying with it the sting of moisture; ice. As she watched, the wall slowly changed beneath Palzin's hand. A large bas relief of curling rose vines, leaves and flower buds was being built up on the ice wall.

"That's beautiful," Rose breathed.

Palzin again said nothing. Moving to his right, he laid his hand on another part of the wall, one yet undecorated. Moisture-laden wind blew around them, and another bas relief appeared in this part of the wall... rose leaves and branches again, this time wrapped around what looked like Gallifreyan script, which Rose could not read. When the relief sculpture on the wall seemed complete, the wind died down.

"A little way to honour our esteemed visitors," said Palzin humbly. "I prefer to work when there's a storm."

"It's gorgeous. The Doctor should be here to see this. I can't wait to show him..."

The Bohdin withdrew its hands into its robes. "The time lord. He fares better this morning?"

"Yes, he does." Rose could not peel her eyes away from the Gallifreyan script. She would have to ask the Doctor later to translate...

"And you. How about you?"

"I'm fine," Rose said automatically. "You built this whole Temple, then?"

"A few of us work on it. The storms help as well. It takes less effort then to direct the ice."

A thought occurred to Rose. "Why did you only ask for my company today?"

Palzin smiled, and Rose thought it looked sad. "The invitation was extended, if I may be so bold, because I thought you might desire some different company this morning."

Rose contemplated for a moment. "You can see the future and the past."

"Yes, Rose Tyler."

"I suppose you can see the present as well."

"I try to be around for it." The Teacher gave a small smile.

"I don't want to know what it's like, to see everything. Yet sometimes I seem to have a memory that I have, before..."

The Teacher said nothing.

Rose sighed. Tentatively she raised a hand to touch the ice relief on the wall, but stopped just a inch away, remembering that her body heat might melt the beauty. She laughed nervously. "I probably shouldn't touch..."

"Do you like it?" Palzin asked simply.

"Like it? It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen—I love it."

"There is nothing to fear then," said the Bodhin. "It will stay with you always in this time and space."

This time Rose said nothing, trying to commit the Teacher words, and the sight of the ice wall, to memory. Something about this place gave her a feeling that she was meant to be here and now.

"I will remember," she said finally, like a promise. "I will always remember this place, and maybe I'll come back..."

The Teacher shook his head and smiled. "You do not have to, Miss Tyler. Every moment is a gift, it only matters that it is treasured at the time it is received. That is the only honour it needs."

Rose nodded. That made sense... especially whenever she was with the Doctor. Being with him sometimes made her unsure they would survive to the next adventure. So many unimportant things seemed to get pushed into the background whenever there was a world to save. Perhaps that was the way things should be.

She smiled at Palzin. "Thank you for inviting me here."

The Bohdin bowed. "Thank you for being here as well. I'll let you get back to the Doctor and to your breakfast."

"Breakfast!" Rose slapped her forehead.

When she reached to her room and knocked on the door, all apologies for her long absence evaporated from her head as the time lord appeared before her and gave her a huge, long hug. Rose was getting all breath squeezed out of her anyway. She grinned as she returned the hug, and continued grinning as the Doctor held her shoulders at arm's length for an inspection.

"Where did you go? Breakfast is cold! I was starting to get worried! And so much for my kind gesture and all that," said the Doctor in a rush and in mock indignation. 

Rose now smiled at the Doctor's display of concern. Why had she ever doubted? She thought it obvious and sweet that she had been missed. "Quite right too," she simply said, and laughed at the Doctor's look of befuddlement.


	6. The Way Back

**Author's Note: **_How I hate this story to end, but it must! This chapter has humour, and a last bit of angst and emotional distance that I think will help slip this little piece of mine into what's seen between Rose and the Doctor near the end of Season 2. This will be the last note from me on the story as well. Songs used for inspiration throughout the writing of these chapters: Stay (Shakespeare's Sister), Run (Snow Patrol), and Private Emotion (Meja and Ricky Martin_—_don't laugh, the video rocks and fits the story theme too). Hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Thanks for coming along on the journey._

* * *

"You know, Jedi knights don't really exist, but right now you do look like one," said the Doctor.

"What?"

Rose and the Doctor had found another meditation garden, one that was next to the scriptorium in the underground complex. The scriptorium was decidedly quite impressive, being both the Bohdins' library and the space where they did their reading and manuscript illumination. The Doctor had taken a couple of tomes from their shelves and had his glasses perched on his nose as he browsed through the pages. He sat casually on a rock in the garden while Rose peered into the ice pond for signs of life within. Specks of ice fell gently around them down from a weakening ice storm far above them on the planet surface.

"The cape, the hood. The robes. All very swishy. All you need now is that light sword thing. And maybe an old man to call you 'apprentice'."

"How old did you say you were? You probably qualify, many times over!"

"Oi," said the Doctor, affronted. "At least I look good for my age."

"Well, you cheat, don't you."

"Uppity young apprentice."

"Cradle robber."

Rose laughed as the Doctor gaped for words to say and found none. She then looked at him in incredulity when he remained speechless after long moments. Had she embarrassed the time lord? Could he blush?

"Oh don't worry, Doctor," she said lightly. "At least it was all legal by Earth standards." She sat next to him on the rock and smiled at him before looking up at the sky. How many different skies on different worlds had she seen, with him? She had lost count, yet she would never grow bored of this.

The Doctor cleared his throat. "Yes. Well. All right then." He looked down again at the book in his hands. Truth be told, though, he could not concentrate. He made a show of reading, then asked, casually, "Where do you want to go after this?"

"Oh, I don't know," came Rose's answer. "I actually do like it here. The heated swimming pools make it worth it."

The Doctor smiled. The thing about Rose was... she always had something nice to say about every place they'd been to. "And maybe if you asked, the Bohdins here could teach you sword skills. You could become a real Jedi."

"Oh, I don't think so," said Rose. She looked behind them at the scriptorium, then whispered to him conspiratorially, "I think they're _pacifists_."

The Doctor pretended shock, after which he and his companion exchanged grins. The Doctor had to admit, this place did have its bright side. Refuge. Sanctuary. He felt that they did have that here. But they could not stay here forever. Just one more night... And then it was back to the rest of time and space. Odd that the rest of time and space always seemed to have danger in store for them. He never used to be worried, but now...

"Anyway," said Rose. "Anywhere we go next, I'm sure it'll be fantastic!" She jumped off the rock they had been sitting on. "I'm going for a dip in the hot springs. Would you like to come?"

The Doctor could not recall the last time he'd tried to swim. He waved Rose along. "I'll come later. Need to put these back on the shelves."

Rose had a look of mischief on her face. "Can time lords even swim?"

"What?"

* * *

Rose was very, very slippery under the water. The Doctor found this out as a series of water skirmishes broke out between them at the hot springs and Rose found to her disappointment that the Doctor's lung capacity vastly outstripped hers. But her failure to keep him underwater did not take away from her ability to elude the Doctor's attempts at holding _her_ underwater. Something about Rose's _smoothness_ made holding on to her as difficult as grabbing an eel.

They grinned at each other now, panting from behind their show of teeth as they circled each other cautiously in the shoulder-deep hot water, four feet apart. The Doctor lunged. Rose dodged, then splashed water in his face. She laughed as he growled and lunged unsuccessfully again. Her voice echoed in the large underground chamber that housed the springs.

"Doctor, are you even trying?" She paddled backwards away from him, keeping him within her sight. She had been laughing so hard that her cheeks and sides ached. The sight of floundering, wet, half-naked time lord was just too much. She kicked water at the direction of him, then stopped when he disappeared under the milky water.

Uh oh. Rose stopped paddling and stood up in the water, looking around. Mineral hot water was damnably opaque ... but the Doctor would not be able to dunk her if he could not see her. She started inching slowly away from where she'd last seen him. To no avail.

Hands reached for her, grabbing her arms and pulling her down into the water so she was quite completely dunked. Even underwater, she laughed as she struggled against the Doctor's grip. But he had two handholds on her this time and it was hard to escape. She changed tactics—instead of struggling to escape his hold, she reached to tickle him, and was rewarded as his surprised reaction gave her a chance to stand up and breathe above the water. A second later, a peeved Doctor emerged from the water beside her.

"Oh, that wasn't very fair," he said.

"I didn't know there was a rule that I had to let you win."

"Oh, there is," said the Doctor seriously. "Especially if you want to keep riding in the TARDIS."

Rose laughed. The Doctor maintained his sombre look a moment longer before flashing a grin and wrapping his arms around Rose. Before she could try to get away, he kissed her on the lips. It wasn't a very long kiss, and the Doctor withdrew to see Rose regarding him with suspicion.

"What?" he said.

"Nothing. I just thought that might have been a trick..."

"Oh, how you doubt me..." Though, he _had_ meant it as a trick when it started...

Rose shook her head at him, trying to get out of his arms, but she felt good where she was and he did not let go. Funny... he had a feeling that he ought to do that more while he still could.

Rose stopped struggling against him after a while and surrendered tiredly into his hug.

"You know what?" she said, after a moment, against his shoulder. "These quiet times with you, they _are_ a little strange. I feel as if we should be running away from something in order to feel normal."

Couldn't she tell? He _was. _But he tried to smile.

"If it makes you feel better we could have a race back to our room."

_Ding. _The Night Bell sounded on cue like a starter's pistol going off.

Rose and the Doctor exchanged a look, and then they were both scrambling out of the water as fast as they could.

* * *

The Doctor won that race, but Rose didn't mind. The view of the Doctor's back, clad only in a flapping white shirt and wet boxers, running barefoot through the hallways with his coat, trousers and jacket in one hand and his trainers in the other was a sight she doubted she would behold all that often, if ever again. She lost time getting her robes and shoes back on (losing all her toes to frostbite was not her idea of fun) and by the time she caught up to the Doctor in their room, he was bent over the fireplace, poking at the fire; his jacket, trousers, coat and shoes scattered haphazardly all around the room.

Rose flopped onto the floor cushions and threw the Doctor's tie at his head. He'd dropped it somewhere in the hallway, about two hallways back... The Doctor caught the tie and flashed her a grin. She rolled her eyes, lay back on the cushions next to him and tried to catch her breath.

_You have much to learn, my young apprentice. _

_Shut up._ Rose tried to shake the Doctor's hand off hers. The time lord always had to think he was so impressive.

The Doctor's grin could not be suppressed. Turning away from the fire, he lay down on the cushions beside her, resting his head on his other hand. Suddenly she was aware he had his eyes and his full attention upon her, and it was a bit disconcerting.

_Yes? _she asked.

_You're fantastic._

That took Rose a bit by surprise. She tried to hide it. _Did you want something?_

_My prize, of course._

Before she could react, the Doctor was closing the distance between their lips and giving her a deep kiss. Rose's heart was speeding up again, beating hard now than it'd been during their race from the hot springs. She panted faintly into their kiss, fighting excitement and confusion at the same time. Since they'd come to this planet, the Doctor's behaviour had been odd—well, odder than usual. Not that she wanted to complain. Almost anything he wanted, she was willing to give to him. Her Doctor. She gave her all into the kiss, enjoying the feel of his tongue against hers, his body against hers, and his mind—which was as the night before, close to hers again. She had no idea what normal was, nothing was around _him_, but maybe this was what was supposed to happen when one got close to a time lord.

She found that thought very intriguing.

_I'm trying this thing called 'seduction', _said the Doctor to her, interrupting her thoughts. _All this attempts at analysis are very rude._

_Oh, sorry._ The Doctor was kissing down her neck, his breath and mouth warm on her skin, sending waves of pleasure down her body through to her toes. Rose wrapped her arms around the Doctor, just as her mind touched his and felt his full, utter concentration on her. She had to smile. Odd and alien as the Doctor was, being able to touch his thoughts and feelings like this made him a little more easy to understand. He loved her, in his own way that felt both human and alien to Rose, loved her even if he had never said it, would not ever need to say it. The knowledge of that made Rose shiver.

_Rose... _The Doctor's tone was admonishing again.

_All right, all right, I'm being seduced. _Rose pressed herself against the time lord, snaking her hands under his shirt. His hands was exploring her body, had already opened her upper robe and pushed her pants down to her knees; she helped by kicking them off. His need for her was obvious and getting stronger by the second; she could feel his hearts pounding hard, his body aching with want. She knew everything that he wanted to do to her, knew everything he wanted her to do. When she touched her tongue to his neck just beneath his ear, she heard him groaning into her mind, all his defences down. She felt him. He wanted—needed—to lose himself in her, just as she wanted to envelop him completely. She would heal the Doctor, take away and heal his hurts, forever. She could just feel the presence of his painful memories, just under the surface of his thoughts. She'd always known they were there, and now she could almost see them as her own. Pain gripped her heart, for him. Her arms tightened around him. Every kiss she planted down on his neck, she gave it like a salve to a cut or bruise... this kiss for the time he thought he'd lost her on the GameStation, this one for the loss of Madam de Pompadour, this one for his sorrow at being the last of the time lords, this one for _what he'd been forced to do in the time war..._

_Stop._

What he had been forced to do in the time war... the knowledge beckoned to Rose, and, almost unaware she was doing it, she reached to touch the memory again.

_Stop! Rose!_

Without thinking Rose had been on the verge of seeing his memory like it was her own, and suddenly the link with him was broken from his side, as if he'd slammed a door shut. The silence was so sudden and complete that it took Rose a while to realize that she was now alone in her mind.

_Doctor?_

There was no answer. Rose froze, ice gripping her heart, as, lucid now, she looked into the Doctor's eyes and saw fear. His body was rigid, his hands holding her arms like twin vices. Shock was on his face. And fear... of her.

Stop, mouthed his lips.

Too late, Rose realized that without meaning to she had gone too far, had somehow touched parts of his mind that had not been for her to even see. Involuntarily she raised her hands to her mouth in shock. _No...nonono no... I'm sorry, I'm sorry. _But she was alone in her head, could not even hear his reply, if he was giving one. In his eyes, she saw his barriers up, back up, like steel walls. Hard. Impenetrable. Rose felt cold, colder now than she had ever been in her life, alone and hollow.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

His grip on her arms loosened slowly and finally broke their contact with her. The Doctor's eyes were dark. Silently, he rose from the floor cushions and finally looked away. He avoided Rose's gaze as he quietly picked up his clothing and put on his trousers and shirt. Then he sat down, knees up, his arms wrapped around them. Not touching her.

"No more mind tricks," he said softly. The words were deafening in the silence. The Doctor kept his eyes on the fire. His stance was tense and defensive.

"I didn't mean to—" Rose whispered.

"I know."

He knew, he had to know. His words comforted Rose just a little, but her accidental trespass and the loss of the mind-to-mind communication with him felt like more than she could bear. The time lord in front of her now was back to the one she had known almost from the very start—quiet, brooding, aloof. He was sitting only two feet away, but with the silence and darkness around him, they could have been light years apart. Rose didn't know how to bridge the distance. It felt like they were back to how they'd been when started—no, not really. Her feelings toward him would not change. She would stay with him, as long as he still wanted her to.

Rose lifted her chin.

"Whatever you did not want me to see, Doctor, I would not have judged you anyway," she said.

The Doctor gave no answer. She thought she saw his eyes shine for a quick moment before he blinked, still steadfastly not looking at her, but into the fire.

Rose was overcome with tiredness, and now with cold. She pulled her clothing back on, and her winter coat as well, foreseeing a cold night ahead. She whispered a silent goodnight to the Doctor before lying down on the sleeping pallet, pulling the blankets over herself, and reluctantly closing her eyes.

Minutes later, she was sleepily aware of the Doctor laying himself down beside her, behind her. Warmth flooded her body and she felt her heart starting again as she felt his breath on her hair, and his arms wrapping around her, pulling her close. No words were needed for this.

It felt like forgiveness and home.

* * *

"What do you think?"

The Doctor and Rose stood in the Temple of Love and Emptiness. In front of the two of them, the recently formed relief sculpture of rose vines and Gallifreyan script glittered on the wall of ice. It was morning, and the twin suns shone low in the sky. The ice storm had passed.

Rose's gloved hand was in the Doctor's, and he held on to her tightly as he beheld the wall that Palzin had made.

"I think the word is beautiful," said the Doctor, with a nod to Palzin, who was standing to their side, along with Kinny. The two Bohdins had followed the Doctor and Rose to the surface in the glass elevator, to see them off. The weather and the view from the temple was so clear, they could see the TARDIS from the temple, a blue box that contrasted sharply to the white of the ice plain that surrounded it. As Palzin had promised, the TARDIS was free of snow and ice. It was ready and waiting for their next adventure, wherever that may be...

"So what does the time lord writing say?" Rose asked the Doctor.

Out of habit, the Doctor opened his mouth to start a long exposition about the writing on the wall, but he got the feeling this message was personal, and just for him.

"Ah... I'll tell you later," the Doctor said. (He never would.) He turned toward the Bohdins and gave them a polite bow. "Thank you for the hospitality you've shown us."

Rose bowed as well, as did the Bohdins. Straightening, they had huge smiles on their blue-green faces.

"We are happy and honoured to have had you here, Rose and the Doctor," said Palzin. For Rose, the Teacher came forward and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. As the Bohdin withdrew, surprise and the lightest blush coloured Rose's face. The Doctor suspected that something had been conveyed telepathically.

"I will, Teacher. Thank you," Rose murmured. (She would never tell him what was said, either.)

"This is goodbye," said Kinny. "At least for those who see space and the flow of time as the only reality." The smile on Kinny's face was wide and infectious. "We do not."

"Nothing dies or ends. It only changes," said the Teacher. "Fare thee well, Rose and the Doctor."

The Doctor was already walking down the steps of the Temple, towards the TARDIS. He was rubbish at goodbyes. Rose, pulled along by the grip of his hand, followed, but she looked back. She smiled and waved at the Bohdins, who followed them to the edge of the temple steps. The Teacher returned her wave, and both Rose and the Doctor heard the Bohdin's voice—

_Never forget your time here._

The Doctor smiled. When he looked over at his companion, Rose was already smiling back at him.

"We won't," she said.

She squeezed his hand, and he squeezed back.

* * *

The two Bohdins watched from the temple steps as the tiny figures of the human and the time lord finally reached the TARDIS and stepped inside. It wasn't too long before the blue box faded from their view. Kinny and Palzin turned around to walk back into the temple of ice, and to return to their refuge, the House of Love and Emptiness.

"What _does_ it say?" Kinny asked, they walked side by side past the wall with curling rose vines and Gallifreyan script.

"Advice you'd think a time lord shouldn't need," said Palzin. "'Always leave time enough for love.'"

END


End file.
